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Dell this afternoon reported slightly better-than-expected financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter ended February 1. The report comes as the Street debates the pending $24 billion LBO bid for the company from founder Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake.

The stock lately has been traded a little above the $13.65-a-share bid price on the theory that the bidding group could be forced to boosts their offer to win sufficient investor support to get approval of the deal.

In this situation, Michael Dell might actually have been better off if the company had reported a miserable quarter, rather than one that slightly topped estimates. Which is not to say that it was a spectacular quarter, either.

Update: Anyone who thought that Michael Dell might use the earnings report as an occasion to raise his bid will be a little disappointed; there is no update on the deal in the release.

For the period, Dell posted revenues of $14.31 billion, down 11% from a year ago, but up 4% sequentially, and a bit ahead of the Street at $14.12 billion. Non-GAAP profits of 40 cents a share edged the Street consensus at 39 cents.

GAAP earnings were 30 cents a share, down 3o% from a year ago. Non-GAAP profits were down 22%.

Fiscal year revenues were $56.9 billion, down 8%. The company notes that FY 2012 included an extra week.

We continued to execute our long-term strategy in Q4, and realized a 6 percent increase in our enterprise solutions and services business,” CFO Brian Gladden said in a statement. “We also continued to generate strong cash flow from operations of $1.4 billion in the quarter. Our strong balance sheet and cash position enabled the company to invest almost $5 billion in new capabilities and intellectual property this fiscal year, including great assets like Quest, SonicWall, Wyse and AppAssure.”

Some other key data points from the release:

Server revenue was up 5%.

Networking revenue was up 42%.

Quest software revenue was ahead of the stated target of $180 million to $200 million, the company said.

Desktop and mobility business revenue was up 3% sequentially but down 20% from a year ago.

Large enterprise revenue was down 7%.

Public sector revenue was down 9%.

Small and medium business revenue was off 5%.

Consumer was down 24%.

EMEA was down 14%; Americas was down 10%; Asia-Pacific and Japan was down 9%.

The company said that given the pending deal to go private, it is not providing any guidance.

In late trading, Dell is up 3 cents, or 0.2%, to $13.83.

Update: Due to his pending bid to take the company private, Michael Dell was not quoted in the release, and did not participate in the post-quarter conference call. The company also noted at the start of the call that it would not be taking any questions on the pending LBO.

Update: The company is changing its reporting structure starting in FY Q1. The old structure included large enterprise, public, small & medium business and consumer; the new units are enterprise solutions, software, services and end user computing.